Review: Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better

As I read Influence: How the Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better over the past couple of weeks I couldn’t help but consistently think about the increasing power of mom bloggers and the opportunities we all have to grow our businesses, no matter their size. If you have been wasting time wishing and hoping to turn your blog into a viable business, you should certainly think long and hard about bringing your career and economic dreams to fruition. After all, the Net seems custom-made for tech-savvy, digital mavens like us. And even if you don’t want to turn your blog into a business, the skills you currently have and are consistently amassing as a social media mom can catapult your business idea into an area of real significance. As women, our choices are endless and the opportunities are vast.

Influence encapsulates the might of women’s economic power, as its title suggests. But, instead of churning out to-do lists of action items to build our businesses, Maddy Dychtwald uses anecdotal stories to illustrate precisely how ingenious and creative women are and how economic empowerment renders our lives and our families’ lives richer. Using real stories from real women (some of whom I know and admire) creates a real “can-do” spirit in the book. You finish it more empowered to go forth and build a viable business.

The running theme throughout Influence is as women gain greater economic might, the world is changing with that transition. For example, work options are slowly becoming more favorable to modern families, men are realizing the option of staying home or taking on more child rearing responsibilities, brands are starting to listen harder to their women consumers, women’s political clout is increasing, and women are able to help one another more as their collective buying power and bank accounts increase.

Though empowering, Influence comes close to sounding overly optimistic at times. There are still several barriers that keep women from actualizing as much potential as we can such as the lack of venture capital opportunities, difficulty securing bank loans, and the lack of key contacts that push female-owned businesses forward. I will say, though, Dychtwald mentions these factors and shows how they can be overcome through examples of women who have pushed these barriers aside and barreled through them.

Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better is perfect reading for PR and brand executives who need to figure out the pulse of women, especially those of us who are creating our own content and working with brands on a daily basis. Influence is also an inspirational read for women who want to build their own businesses and need the inspiration to get going.

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2 comments

Jennifer! Thank you for putting this book on my radar, I’m grabbing the next hard copy I see. I’m so heartened to see that there’s actually enough anecdotal evidence to support a book around this idea. I think influence is so hard to quantify, but so unmistakable in our society when we look at the last ten years and how the world of work as we know it has completely shifted. Things will never be the same, and as I look back on my cubicle days and think about how much more I accomplish from my kitchen table with a high speed internet connection, I thank my lucky stars every day.

And the best part of the journey is meeting other awesome women carving their path, like you. xoxo, L

[…] at Ketchum and author of Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women , when she said in Influence: If you engage bloggers along the way and take their advice and make changes, it’s not like […]